F84G ''Thunderbirds'', 1:48 Tamiya

Ive been quite a while masking up the panels for the panel shading. Its proving pretty tough, delicate & slow. The alclad after a while began to come off revealing the black primer. Also trying to trace the panel shape & cut it out is pretty tough! I kept the panels pretty random because no two aircraft have the same panel shading (i cant understand why)! I tried following research images & video capture. This is where i am:

This is a colour test using the metalizer paints i have. Alclad and ModelMaster:

The hard part is choosing the right shade. i was thinking of spraying them all dark aluminum OR ...wings dark alum and fuselage stainless steel. The top part behind the canopy will be titanium and jet exhause gun metal.

ANY IDEAS OF WHAT PROPER SHADES TO USE & WHERE?? As i said, each aircraft, every bit of research told a different story

Alternatively apply a coat of glass varnish before each different shade you apply to the model. That way you will be applying the masking tape over the varnish and not over the paint. Use the good old Revell gloss varnish.

I only applied masking tape over the small panels that i do not want to spray and as a border between the panel & the polished metal surface to get a straight line. the rest will me masked up using paper & bluetac.

I was wondering does gloss put the bright PMF at risk? will it reduce its effect?

Ive often read that glossing over alclad for decals isnt necessary, but i do not agree. i like knowing the paint is secured under a gloss coat. even after decals. I just hope the gloss doesnt jeopardize the PMF I was going to use Klear

Lately i was in the mood of patiently masking up the aircraft for panel shading. I used cooking paper because its thin and easy to trace. Only problem is, it has wax on it, and doesnt stick all that well. Next time i will use tracing paper. After tracing its shape, i rolled bleu tac sausages & placed the cut mask over it. I will be using stainless steel, dark aluminum & some titanium.

I hate alclad

During the handling process 'some' of the finish came away revealing these horrible patches that revealed the black primer Thank god these 2 examples will be sprayed over with their new panel colour. But some 'ready parts' got damaged too (even though i barely touched them) I regret not giving the finish a good coating of gloss before carrying out this task! I dont know why i didnt

i cant understand why i got a lot of these dots, almost like i sprayed the alclad on water droplets.

Overall, I am not too happy with the result The dark aluminum on the wings leading & trailing edge and jetpipe is great!, but im unsure about the darker stainless steel on the front fuselage & behind the canopy. What do you think? It is really annoying because the new panels keep changing according to the light!

Also a lot of the polished aluminum got damaged in the long process. Ive learnt my lesson & next time, i will coat it before panel shading.

Adrian I thing your doing a good job, as I see from the photos..may be for a suggestion or for another time , do not use to much contrast colours because, although there is diferent metal panel they were not that dark...

Considering everything, i think you are doing an excellent job. I told you to apply gloss after every single paint application. That will prevent nasty incidents. But i think it is great. I tend to agree with Marco that you did exaggerate a bit with the contrasting panels but believe me, it looks good, really cool!!

the blue-ish stainless steel was bothering me. So i once again re-masked those small pmf panels & around the part to be sprayed & sprayed on dark aluminum. Not a massive difference but better and less...blue

Next thing you know, your back to square one. Masking around the panels which got damaged (you can see them easily here) earlier on to respray them Over here i am masking over the new paint!

After spraying the 2 panels, I removed the tape to find it peeled some of the new paint away, alongside the previous layers. no surpise though.. black acrylic, M.M stainless steel, 2 layers of klear, dark aluminum, 2 layer of Klear So i masked up the newly painted panel AGAIN and sprayed the effected area

Ive been working away at this model. Some of the following progress is old. I just never posted it.

The red & blue gave ma a hard time, just like the Mystere. I just cant match them to the decals! i ended up making the red from MM red mixed with white- not an exact match but close. Blue from tamiya royal blue & black- not an exact match but close again. The kit states tamiya royal blue alone and its far from a close match to the decals!

The fuel tanks part needed 'some' thought and preperation. Reason being the blue & red meet at a certain point on the tank, where after the irregular white decal goes over them. Now if this meet point is too much to one side.. the colours will meet outside the decal! This is what i mean:

So to 'play it safe', i scanned the white decals, printed them, cut them out & taped them together (without loosing scale):

Placed it over the fuel tank, just like the white decals would fit. Like this i could mark where the red & blue have to be painted. This also tells me till what point must the red & blue extend onto the wing:

So here i have an idea of where to paint to & where the decal will end up. R-red B-blue.

I like the different metal approach, I just wonder though if the white decal is conna cover that red and blue, if the decal is not completely opaque it might show off due that colours are hard edged split and dark, can't you feather a little bit with white in the middle?

Thats whats worrying me. the colours showing through! I was told they are quite thick & dont show through.

Im glad you like the shading. i like the wings panels but dont like the fuselage shading

All in all im not happy about the metal finish, there is not one panel that is clean. the aircraft is full of black dots (damaged paint revealing primer- almost like a handled with with black fingers) because of handling. Also marks where i resprayed lifted areas, scalpel marks, touched up silver parts. the more you repair/touch up the uglier it comes AAAAA I hope decals will cover it up. even after gloss coatings it seems to get damaged.

Maybe you should use that squiggle as a mask template making it a few mm smaller and overcoat with a thin white base then apply the decal or the hard way else use frisket cut the pattern well and too size and spray white, you'll have a much better result then decal ...

I decided to leave the wheels bays for last. masking was quite easy. just place masking tape over it. outline the perimeter by gliding a pencil over it. then get a sharp blade and glide it along the perimeter of the wing bay.

I used MM Chromate. interesting colour it looks like bright yellow in the tin. when used it looks like a dirty yellow. almost like you dropped some black and green in it.